


The Silver Fox - The Birthday

by sagely_sea



Series: The Silver Fox [2]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Fox!Shiro, M/M, Mutual Pining, Post Season 7, Pre-Relationship, Talk of Future Death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-24
Updated: 2018-10-24
Packaged: 2019-08-06 23:14:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,808
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16396934
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sagely_sea/pseuds/sagely_sea
Summary: Shiro has a gift for Keith on his birthday, so heads to his room to give it to him. He didn't expect the talk of ages, time, and death. But overall Shiro thought his birthday wishes went over well.(Keith got a bit dramatic and angsty for a moment in the middle but it's mostly fluff and pining and ends on a happy note)





	The Silver Fox - The Birthday

**Author's Note:**

> Shiro really wanted to do something for Keith's birthday and the muses are too new to me to refuse. 
> 
> This story takes place between Keith discovering that Shiro is part fox spirit and 'The Problem' which happens about three months later. It's been slotted into the right part of the series but thought I'd leave a note here, too.

Shiro looked over at the little fancy bag that held Keith’s present in it and hoped he had made the right choice. Keith was never much about presents or even things. He had the few items that he cherished and anything else he could take it or leave it. Shiro supposed that came from so many years in foster care and then the Garrison. But Shiro thought that what he found in the market set up outside the Garrison would be enough to put a smile on Keith’s face. 

Giving his uniform and hair one last check to make sure everything was perfect, he grabbed the bag and headed out of his quarters and down the hall to where the Voltron rooms were. They were officer rooms and slightly bigger than what a lot of other crew members had on Atlas. 

He gave a knock on the door, sure that Keith would already be up and would hear it. As he waited for the door to open he held the bag down at his side and slightly behind him so it wouldn’t be so obvious. He shifted his weight a little from one foot to another as he heard the lightest sounds of movement on the other side. 

The door slid open and Shiro smiled at Keith. He was dressed in his training clothes with his hair messily pulled back in a ponytail. It really was getting long. Which was dangerous since it made Shiro’s fingers itch to tuck back loose strands out of Keith’s face or just to card through it and see if the strands were as soft as they looked. Definitely dangerous. 

He swallowed thickly at his thoughts and tried to focus on his task at hands. 

“Shiro. Everything okay?” Keith asked. 

“Yes. Of course, why wouldn’t it?” Shiro asked, the question causing him to blush slightly. Was visiting this early a bad thing? Perhaps he should have waited until breakfast or after. 

“I don’t know. You just seem anxious. It’s not… you know…” Keith held out his hand limply and then stiffened and moved it to point up. 

Shiro stared blankly and Keith did it again. Shiro’s cheeks deepened in colour. Keith really needed to stop doing that. Thankfully, it was early enough that the hall was empty but it might not stay that way for long and he didn’t need people seeing that. 

Just because Keith breathing made parts of him stir to life and take notice didn’t mean Shiro needed Keith pantomiming it for everyone to see. Besides, he wasn’t that young anymore and he could control himself enough to pop a full a hard-on at the sight of Keith. No matter how handsome he was looking.

And since when did Keith even talk about things like that? “Uh… what?” He asked again hoping that he really had misunderstood. There was no way that Keith was asking him if he was having a sudden arousal problem, right?

“You know… the problem.” Keith made the gesture again. But obviously he caught sight of how clueless Shiro still was because he made a frustrated noise and then moved aside to let Shiro into his room. Once the door was closed he leaned back against it and looked at Shiro. “So you’re not having a fox episode?” He asked. 

“Oh! That’s what that gesture was.” Shiro was relieved that Keith was just really clueless about certain sexual gestures and that it was just a misunderstanding. “We really need to work on your charades, buddy,” Shiro said. 

“Go practice with Lance. He needs it more.” 

“Team bonding night. MFE vs Voltron?” Shiro suggested. 

Keith snorted lightly and crossed his arms. “Even I know that charades at a party is like an old-timers game. But I guess if it’s you asking everyone might agree.” 

Shiro preened a bit at the compliment even if he was insulted about being old first. His tastes might run a bit simpler at times now but in the middle of a war and after all he’s seen, sometimes a night in playing stupid games with his friends was just what he needed. Especially when he knew that Lance and Keith were going to provide plenty of entertainment. Shiro just hoped that their maturity pulled through and he wouldn’t have to break them apart if tempers got too heated.

“We can always switch to something else after a few rounds,” Shiro said. He was sure there would be no shortage of suggestions. 

“Sure. Anyway, what are you doing here if you weren’t about to pop out ears?” Keith asked. 

Shiro blinked at him. Did Keith really not know why Shiro would want to come to visit him first thing in the morning on this particular day? 

“It’s your birthday,” Shiro said. 

“Oh… is it?” Keith asked. 

And that one question broke Shiro’s heart. Nobody that young should be that oblivious to the passing of their birthday. Shiro didn’t even want to know if it was because Keith was used to nobody remembering it or if it’s just because fighting a war they were really all too young to be in made him forget when it was. 

“It sure is. And I wanted to make sure I was able to wish you a happy birthday before we got too busy. So happy birthday, Keith,” Shiro said and gave him a big smile. He then held out the present he’d been half hiding. 

Keith’s cheeks tinged a cute pink colour and he looked away. “Thanks, Shiro.” He took the present and then set it aside on the coffee table that was in front of the small love seat in the room. “Though I’m not even sure today is my birthday anymore.” 

“What do you mean?” Shiro asked. 

He startled slightly as he heard a noise, thinking for a moment that someone else was in the room and then he saw Kosmo heading out of Keith’s small bedroom. He stopped at Shiro and gave a fairly disinterested sniff and then continued on to Keith and the bag that was on the table. 

“Not for you Kosmo,” Keith said distractedly before reaching down to pet Kosmo who’s tail happily began to sway from one side to the next. “Well the space whale thing. When Krolia and I travelled through that time vortex. It was about two years, we think, but time was a little hard to judge there.” 

“I guess that’s true. But if we don’t know exactly how much time you were gone, I don’t see any reason we shouldn’t celebrate your birthday today,” Shiro said after a moment to think about all he remembered from the space whale. 

Shiro had collected bits and pieces of what happened during that time from both Keith and Krolia and he had the vague memories of the clone as well. Though Shiro wasn’t always sure how much of those were real versus his own mind just filling in the blanks from knowing the others so well and from the context they gave him. 

He did know that the mission had been dangerous veering on suicidal and that finding the space whale pod was what saved them and allowed them to find the Altean colony. It also allowed Keith to find Kosmo. Though Keith, in his more contrary moments still insisted that Kosmo wasn’t really his name and he was sure the wolf had one and would share when he was ready. It was sweet. Ridiculous. But still sweet. Almost as sweet as watching Keith interact with Kosmo. 

“All of our ages are all messed up compared to everyone else’s now,” Keith said. 

Shiro was surprised that Keith didn’t just accept that today was still his birthday and open his present. But if talking things out was what Keith needed then Shiro was always willing to do so. “True. We all got caught in another time vortex when we destroyed the castle. But your age isn’t so far off the others from the Garrison who were in your training program,” Shiro said. 

“Yeah… I sometimes wonder how the others feel about missing so much time with their friends and family. They all knew we’d been in space a long time fighting the Empire but to miss that much…” Keith shrugged. 

Shiro understood. Keith didn’t really have friends or family back on Earth to miss him or to grow further apart in time from. And those he was closest to had mostly experienced those time shifts with him. 

Shiro couldn’t even begin to guess how old he was or how his body would age. His fox spirit certainly seemed to think he was around the age of a toddler but his body was certainly full grown as was his mind. It was confusing and if Shiro thought about it too much he inevitably got a headache. 

“I think everyone handled it pretty well. It was a shock and I’m not sure it’s fully set in but everyone just seems happy to see that their friends or family are still here,” Shiro said. 

Keith nodded and then he walked up to Shiro and laid a hand on his human arm, his other hand drifting through Kosmo’s fur still as the wolf had moved with him. “I’m sorry about Adam, Shiro,” Keith said. 

And of course, Keith would think of the one person that was a friend to them both who wasn’t here to welcome them back. Shiro wasn’t sure what kind of welcome he would have received from Adam. He was fairly certain the romantic side of their relationship was long gone. And with how much he had changed and grown he wasn’t sure if Adam was right for him anymore.

It was hard to say without knowing how the years had changed Adam. But despite that, Shiro knew he still loved Adam. He may not want to share his life with the man anymore but he still valued him as a friend. 

Keith hadn’t been as close to Adam as he was to Shiro but it was hard to spend time with him without getting to know his boyfriend when they had lived and worked together. He had asked them both to watch out for each other when he went on the Kerberos mission and somehow through it all, he never really thought to ask Keith how that had gone. But he doubted they had become strangers to each other. 

He raised his Altean hand to rest on top of Keith’s and gave it a gentle squeeze before letting it go. “Thank you. Have you been to the memorial wall yet?” Shiro asked. The first time he had visited he’d been filled with shock and heartbreak, the second time had felt like closure and a goodbye. The grief was still there but the what ifs and could have beens were gone. Adam and him had started on different paths when Shiro decided he wanted to take the Kerberos mission. Somehow they had ended up back at the same spot. Willing to die to defend Earth and its people. 

Shiro was just surprised that he wasn’t the one up on that wall. 

Keith nodded. “There were a lot of names.” He let his hand fall from Shiro’s arm and took a small step back. Shiro immediately missed the warmth of his touch. Especially since Shiro heard the part that Keith left unsaid. He may not have been close with the people at the Garrison but he knew their names. He could probably put a face to most or remember encountering them if he saw a picture. 

Shiro had hoped, what felt like a lifetime ago, that the Garrison could be a place that Keith could come to think of as safe and home. And he was sure despite being booted out that a part of Keith saw the Garrison as the sanctuary it was to a kid who was on a direct track to trouble and little to live for. 

They’d lost a lot of people in this war. Prisoners they couldn’t save, innocents caught in the middle of conflicts they couldn’t protect, rebels who were hastily trained and too poorly equipped to survive the Empire’s ire, and even the most skilled of blades who put their mission before their lives. But it had never been their home being attacked. That changed things. 

“Hopefully we can end this war soon and stop adding names,” Shiro said. He wouldn’t say they could avoid adding any more. Keith would call out his lie in a heartbeat and it would just make him angry. 

“I asked Kolivan if the Blades had a memorial like that.”

“Oh? What did he say?” Shiro asked. He was genuinely curious to learn more about the Blades since most of their interactions had been with his clone. And they were always a little secretive. Understandable for an organization filled with spies but annoying to someone like Shiro who wanted to know more about them. 

“They collect their blades if they can. Keep those and files about their lives in storage. They hope that they can make a suitable memorial for them one day when they can settle on a planet…” 

“Once the war is over then. We’ll make sure that can happen.” 

Keith’s eyes warmed at that and he nodded. “Kolivan’s lost so many people in this war. He doesn’t usually talk about it. But when he does, it makes me realize just how old he is. How old all the Galra are… or can be.” Keith looked back down at Kosmo. 

“Is this another reason why you don’t want to celebrate your birthday?”

“Nobody can guess how old I’ll live to be... Not as long as a full-blooded Galra but definitely longer than a human is the best they can do.” 

“And you’re worried about outliving everyone you’ve come to be close to?” Shiro asked. This time it was him that reached out to rest a hand on Keith’s arm. This wasn’t how he wanted his birthday greeting to go, but he was glad Keith trusted him with his concerns. That he could hopefully help him through it. 

“Yeah. Shiro… I can’t protect you from time,” Keith said. His eyes large and watery from all the pent-up emotions as he finally looked back up at Shiro. 

“And I wouldn’t ask you to,” Shiro said. He pulled Keith into a hug and held him tight.

“But I want to,” Keith protested, his words slightly muffled against Shiro’s shoulder. 

“I know, Keith. But you’ve already saved me more times than I can count. And you know I was sick before the Kerberos mission. I’m not sure anyone ever told you but it was degenerative. I was never going to get better. My life was on a time limit. I hate what the Empire did to me. But I can’t hate all the extra time they gave me,” Shiro said. And he sometimes still hated that he felt that way. 

“Yeah. But you deserve more.”

Shiro sighed. Keith was an orphan who finally found his family and was going to cling to it as hard as he could. And nothing Shiro said would ever fully erase the fears and anger at knowing that as part Galra he would outlive most of his friends. 

“I already have more. I died once already, Keith. You saved me. We may not know what this clone’s body is capable of or how it will age. But I’m so thankful for the time I have. The time I get to spend with you and with the other paladins and everyone else.” 

Shiro may be reckless from time to time but that wasn’t because he didn’t want to live. Sometimes it was because being a little reckless was the best way to enjoy life. Other times it was because as the leader, it was his job to make sure that his team stayed safe. That the universe stayed safe. And that sometimes meant putting himself in danger. But it was worth it if they could win and free the universe. If he could keep Keith safe. 

“I know… I’m… I don’t even know…” Keith said. He gave Shiro one last long and hard squeeze before letting go. Shiro took the hint and relaxed his hold on Keith so he could step back. Kosmo was immediately between them looking up for attention. 

They both reached down to pet him at the same time, their fingers brushing in the process. Despite the hug, this somehow felt more intimate and Shiro looked up at Keith and gave him a soft smile. 

“In war, nobody knows how much time they’ll have. So that’s why it’s important to treasure every moment we have,” Shiro said. 

Keith sighed. But some of the tension left his body and Shiro felt something inside of him relax. “You’re just saying that so that when the others come telling me about this awesome party they’re throwing me that I’ll say yes, aren’t you?” 

Shiro wasn’t, but if Keith was throwing out a lifeline to move on to safer and happier topics than Shiro would gladly take it. “Maybe. But you know Hunk will have cooked something great for you. That’s worth putting up with a bit of chaos for.” 

“Yeah… I guess you’re right.” 

“So, are you going to open your present?” Shiro asked nodding toward the gift on the table. This was supposed to be a happy morning after all, even if it got slightly heavy for a moment. 

“Aren’t I too old for presents?” Keith asked. 

“Never,” Shiro said and then used his Altean hand to give Keith a strong nudge toward the gift. “Open it.” 

“Alright, alright,” Keith relented. He carefully picked up the bag as if it might attack and then peeked inside. But the tissue paper at the top kept him from seeing the gift.

The whole time, Shiro was practically vibrating with nervous energy and had to keep telling himself to breathe. Finally, Keith plucked out the tissue paper and let it fall to the table before peeking back into the bag. 

“Are these…” Keith’s question trailed off as he pulled out the two objects and put the bag back down. “They are.” Keith held them up to the light and then let out a small laugh as he grinned over at Shiro. 

“Like them?” Shiro asked. He thought Keith’s reaction was a positive and happy laugh and not a ‘Shiro is crazy and this is so stupid’ type of laugh but he felt the need to double check. 

“I love them. How did you even find something like this?” Keith asked. 

“The alien market. Voltron apparently has quite the following so there were a few stalls selling things about them,” Shiro explained. 

Shiro was surprised the blush he had had after spying the first booth filled with Voltron things had ever left his cheeks. He supposed he should have expected it. They had worked to free numerous planets from the Galra Empire and Coran had insisted on those Voltron shows. Something Shiro couldn’t decide if he was happy or sad he had missed out on.

The market had only gotten more embarrassing as he wandered further into the market and found more things. Like the Atlas model that was now sitting in his bedroom. He’d bought the figure for himself when he had bought the Red and Black Lions for Keith. He was still hoping that the shopkeeper hadn’t figured out that the Captain of the Atlas was the one buying them. 

They were a little juvenile and not the most accurate representation. But they had all of the basics right and they seemed sturdy enough to make a nice gift. 

“Wow,” Keith said. He stared down at the lions in his hand and just when Shiro was starting to get nervous again he found himself with his arms full of Keith. 

“Thank you,” Keith said. Though Shiro more felt than heard the words as they were said into his shoulder. He wrapped his arms around Keith and returned the hug. 

“Anytime. I’m just glad you like them.” 

“I love them. Thank you,” Keith said, pulling back enough so Shiro could actually hear the words this time. 

They hugged a bit longer before Keith stepped back and looked around the room. “Let me find a safe place to put these.” He finally settled on one of the built-in shelves around the vid-screen. He was still smiling when he stepped back. “Don’t eat those Kosmo.” 

Kosmo didn’t seem to acknowledge the command in any way that Shiro could see but Keith seemed satisfied since he gave a nod. “So, training?” Keith asked. 

“I can’t. I have a meeting.” Shiro would really rather go train. It was hard fitting in proper workouts and training and he felt as if his skills were getting rusty with every meeting he took. He knew it wasn’t true. But he missed having a bit more freedom to his schedule. 

“Before breakfast? That’s tough,” Keith said. “Think I’ll see you at breakfast?” 

“I’ll use it as an excuse to cut the meeting short if they go on too long.” Shiro hoped it wouldn’t. It was supposed to be just a quick update on the personnel they had on board the ship and who else they needed to fill positions along with anyone who wanted either on or off the ship for various reasons.

Atlas could hold a lot of people but his space wasn’t endless. And Shiro knew they’d be heading out deep into the universe to bring this fight to the Empire and to finish it. They had to be careful about who they hosted on board. He was there to make sure all of Atlas’ needs were met and that they wouldn’t be left short-handed in any area. Though Shiro still felt it strange to have so many people working together to run the ship after just the seven of them on the Castle Ship for so long. 

“Great. And you know… call me if you need me in case you have any… you know… fox issues.” Keith did the horrifying hand gesture again before he walked to the door. 

Shiro really needed to teach him a better gesture for him to use if he insisted on using them to talk about his fox problem where they might be overheard. 

He followed Keith out he door and then they parted ways, although quite reluctantly on Shiro’s part, so they could both go start their days. Despite some darker thoughts, Shiro felt that his birthday wishes had gone over well. And his present was certainly a hit. And with Keith’s laugh and smile still fresh in his mind, he headed off to his first meeting of the day with a bit of a spring to his step.

**Author's Note:**

> This really could have been a stand-alone story but I really wanted to have Keith being dreadful at charades/gestures. I can't pass up a bad tail/erection joke. 
> 
> I was also blindsided by Keith's feelings on birthdays/his age/and outliving Shiro. I think it was good for the boys to get that off their chests though. 
> 
> And as always, thank you for reading.


End file.
